Summer 2017: Other shows of the season

Published on July 28, 2017

Since there was no Re:Creators episode this week, I'm going to take the time to talk about some of the other series I'm watching in this season. It has been a pretty ridiculous season for me (I think I'm up to 28 shows that I'm actively watching), so I won't go through everything.

Nana Maru San Batsu

I admit that this series initially intrigued me solely because I was a member of the quiz bowl team in high school and college (granted my high school team was very casual). I think the series does a good job of exploring concepts in quiz bowl strategy pretty well, focusing on the techniques used to gain an edge in a competition. I assume most people see quiz bowl as something for people with a lot of base knowledge in multiple subjects. This is true to an extent, but I think it's fun even if your knowledge is very specialized (like mine was).

The main problem I have with this series is the fact that it tends to beat a joke to death more often than I'd like. For example, the first episode was constantly obsessed with the heroine's striped panties and the second episode went a bit overboard with zettai ryouiki (not a bad reference, but a bit overdone). And I'm no expert on quiz bowl, but some of the formats seem pretty obscure.

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e

I'm really not sure what to make of this series yet. It's an interesting setup, a competitive school where classes compete over academic merit. It certainly has the makings of an interesting psychological experience as the main characters struggle to overtake the other classes. There's just something about the series that feels like it's trying too hard.

I think the main example of this is the quotes at the start of the episode. They're pretty profound quotes, yes, but they're not subtle at all. I guess I generally prefer when a seemingly innocuous event earlier in an episode makes me go "oh, that's what that meant" later in the episode. Instead, this series just plasters it across the screen at the very beginning. Maybe I'm just being nitpicky.

The Fluff

These shows don't have a whole lot going on, so I've grouped them together.

Centaur no Nayami

I thought I was going to skip this series, but I think I was a bit quick to judge it. For some reason, I thought it was just going to follow a centaur that stood out in a normal school environment, but it's actually an alternate reality. My bad. It's entertaining enough, but I think it's a bit heavy on the discrimination part. I get that it's the message, but it feels forced in some situations (like during the history lesson in the first episode). Plus, it assumes that species would tend to converge on human-like intelligence, which is something that has always bothered me.

Isekai Shokudou

This show is just a pleasure to watch every week. It takes a simple concept of a restaurant connected to another world and uses it to introduce a swath of fantasy characters. There's also something charming about watching a fantasy character react to a completely different world's food (and the reactions to the free water are hilarious too).

Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni

I said I'd only watch one isekai series in this season, but I ended up watching them both. This series is a lot more standard than Isekai Shokudou. It's just a seemingly random guy in our world reincarnated as an overpowered guy in another world. But hey...this time, he's got a smartphone. That's new. I don't really hate it, though.